the reason for this, is because A-EON X5000 board with P5020 | P5040 CPU,
has become outdated.
Old P-CPUs:
Power5 e5500 45nm No-Altivec 2|4-cores PCIe v2.0 "2005-2010 technology"
The idea is to make an Open Board for New T-CPUs, dual Boot Firmware: CHRP and U-Boot, like Fienix, About.
T-CPUs:
Power6 e6500 28nm Altivec ddr3-1600
4|8|12-cores, 2-Threads per core, 1.8Ghz/1.6Ghz/1.5Ghz
2x PCIe v3.0 + 2x PCIe 2.0, 3x memory channels in 12-core model.
Big.Endian
vs.
Power9v2 4|8|18|22-cores 4-threads per core, PCIe v4.0 ddr4-ecc
Bi-Endian, but most Linux distros are little.endiam.
All comes down to Price.
¿is worth a DIY Power6 today?
Power6 has No Board, DIY. KiCAD, Target3001!, Eagle, etc...
NXP Development Board is Crazy Expensive >$4500-$6000usd.BTO
comes with too much all-in-one, 4x different Network adapters, etc...
Power6 28nm similar to Intel & AMD 2013-2015 technology, Steamroller, Excavator, Puma, Jaguar
2MB L2 cache.
Power9 14nm Sforza 512KiB L2 2017 technology "Big L3 | small L2".
has 3x Boards, Ready to Run.
Problem with most modern Boards,
is that CPU pins, Sockets Made in China are designed to fail,
metal is brittle, did Not happened with older boards X58.
DIY board can be:
soldered CPU 2000 solder balls, or
custom socket, No off the shelf part.
DIY socket could be like some Fine Stylus tips,
with spring tip, like a Pentium4 478 socket but backwards, Pins on board,
like AMD Ryzen, but backwards, pins on board, and must have springs 5mm tolerance.
Balls are 1mm pitch, a DIY Socket will solve a lot of soldering issues,
and will create a used CPU market, making easier for late adopters to get-in,
but diy socket will increase price.
other sollution can be like older PowerMac, Amiga 4k or Pentium-II "CPU cards with PCI connector",
easier than DIY socket, CPU soldered to a small PCB, can be swaped by user very easy.
2Ghz may require surface mount PCIe connector, Not Though Hole,
and a metallic bracket / retention mechanism / support, like gamer boards.
small CPU PCB can have standard Heatsink / waterblock mounting holes.
1x CPU PCIe for Vertical L. "Cost Reduced"
2x PCIe for Horizontal = similar to Atmel STK600 mcu & routing cards.
The idea is to make an ATX board, compatible with many cases,
similar to NXP dev board, but cost reduced.
different versions: with so-dimm "laptop" ddr3, with standard full size "Desktop" ddr3
ddr can also be a PCIe module, user can swap.
with cheap 1Gbe Ethernet, with Better 1x SFP+ 10G cage, NXP recomended IC or common Marvell Aquantia AC100 Sonnet, Asus XG-C100F, etc..
with CPU SATA-II 3Gbps, with faster SATA-III 6Gbps like Sonnet Tempo SSD to PCIe card
or nothing, just PCIe slots,
maybe with PCI to PCIe bridge "there are 4 different IC brands",
some old PCI cards like Digi001 have issues with X58 PCI, but work ok with older 975x boards.
and/or NVMe U-Boot drivers, PCIe v2.0 is limited to 1600MB/s, PCIe v3.0 2500MB/s, PCIe v4.0 >5000MB/s
some PCIe to NVMe cards: Ableconn, Startech, Sonnet, Areca, HighPoint,
have a Bifurcation IC, that allows 2500MB/s in PCIe v2.0, 5000MB/s in PCIe v3.0.
RaptorComputerSystems
Boards:
Talos-II
Talos-I
Backbird
CPUs:
Power9 22-core $4962usd. | $226usd. per core.
Power9 18-core $2634usd. | $147usd. per core.
Power9 8-core $1366usd. | $171usd. per core.
Power9 4-core $945usd. | $237usd. per core.
Average price per core $195usd.
2x CPU board TL2MB1:
$4050usd. = $2025usd. per cpu
EATX, 3x PCIe x16 + 2x PCIe x8, 16x DDR4 ECC Slots.
BMC-VGA
2x CPU 1-socket unpopulated / Cost Reduced TL1MB1:
https://www.raptorcs.com/content/TL1MB1/intro.html
$2460usd. per CPU.
EATX, 1x PCIe x16 + 1x PCIe x8, 8x DDR4 ECC Slots.
BMC-VGA
Single / Cost Reduced CPU board BK1MB1:
https://www.raptorcs.com/content/BK1MB1/intro.html
$2063usd. per CPU.
8-core max, 1x PCIe x16 + 1x PCIe x8, 2x DDR4 ECC Slots.
BMC-HDMI
Purchasing different quantity of processors
gives discrepancy in price per core.
IF purchasing quantity were optimized for same price per core,
Higest price per core:
Power9 22-core $5197usd. | $237usd.
Power9 18-core $4252usd. | $237usd.
Power9 8-core $1890usd. | $237usd.
Power9 4-core $945usd. | $237usd.
Lowest price per core:
Power9 22-core $3220usd. | $147usd.
Power9 18-core $2634usd. | $147usd.
Power9 8-core $1171usd. | $147usd.
Power9 4-core $586usd. | $147usd.
having a lower price per core requires purchasing very large quantity.
REQUIRES GoFundME or similar.
Power6 12-core 1.8Ghz T4240 CPU is aprox. $1600usd. | $133usd. per core,
purchasing 1 unit shipping in 5 days.
Mouser has $1500 | $125usd. 18 week wait, minimum 12 units.
The idea is a GoFundMe to purchase 108 or more, as much units as possible, to lower price as much as possible.
Top of the Line 1.8Ghz 12-core model 3x ddr3 channels.
Mouser T4240 1.8Ghz
crypto disabled:
T4240NSN7TTB
crypto enabled:
T4240NSE7TTB
Top of the Line 1.8Ghz 8-core model 2x ddr3 channels.
Mouser T4160 1.8GHz
crypto disabled: T4160NSN7TTB
cryprto enabled: T4160NSE7TTB
$1100 - $1200usd. | $137usd. $150usd. aprox.
Lowest price possible 1.5Ghz 4-core T4080
T4080NSN7PQB
$573usd. | $143usd. aprox.
$682usd | $170usd. 5 day shipping.
After Price comes Ethics dilema
IBM has closed source RHEL, 1, a few years after purchase.
they claim they are Not making enough money, same as Hollywood Strike,1, 2, 3, 4.
similar also to the New RiscOS version for ARM CPUs "Raspberry Pi,
same speech: we are Open but we are Not.
they are closing walls slowly,
continuing the path to Ban Open Free Software.
IBM Power9 maybe better than Power6 technically but Ethically Not.
They think they have the Best Engineers on their side, and they will do anithing they tell them to do
with a finger snapp, and is true, they do it without question 1,